If Huawei has any interest in being seen as a reputable international company, it should stop parsing legalistic descriptions of its technologies and take responsibility for its decision to provide telecommunications equipment to the Iranian regime.

Huawei's statement that its technology is only "for commercial and civilian use" in Iran is not a thoughtful justification for its business, given that many telecommunications firms have left Iran because of the ample and documented evidence of the regime abusing such technology to conduct surveillance and track human rights activists and dissidents. Instead of following the lead of these responsible telecommunications firms, Huawei is using misleading public statements to obscure the fact that it is expanding its presence in Iran even while other telecommunications firms are ending theirs.

Saying that its "work in Iran is no different than our work in any other market," is not a valid excuse for Huawei's work, but a sign of Huawei's lack of standards for its business. As UANI previously noted in its letter to Huawei, these other markets are not run by brutal leaders who misuse telecommunications technology to illegally trample on the human rights of their own citizens.

For the people of Iran, "misuse" of technology has the same effect that "use" does. If Huawei is concerned about the misuse of its technology by the Iranian regime and reputational harm, it should stop attempting to justify its irresponsible and dangerous Iran business and instead immediately end it.